The Secret To Building Meaningful Relationships on Facebook With Mari Smith

August 15, 2014

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | RSS

Is your Facebook strategy lacking engagement, stagnant, or simply ineffective?

Are you struggling to connect with your target audience and grow your Facebook presence?

This week on the Social Media Social Hour Podcast I’m joined by Mari Smith, one of the world’s leading Facebook marketing experts. In this episode, Mari gives you actionable tips and tactics on how you can build meaningful relationships on Facebook. Mari also touches on the decline in organic reach for Facebook Pages and what can be done to overcome it.

About the show:

SMSH_Podcast_Artwork_300The Social Media Social Hour is a podcast for marketers and entrepreneurs looking to get on the social media fast track. The podcast is an interview format, where each week I get up close and personal with top brands and influencers to talk social media, tech and online marketing. Each week I also share tools that I personally use to help me with social media management, sales, marketing, accounts management, and productivity. The Social Media Social Hour is presented by Scoreboard Social.

In this episode, here’s what you’ll discover:

About Mari Smith

How to build meaningful relationships on Facebook

  • One of the first steps Mari recommends for people on any social platform is to be a member first. Meaning, use the platform how the users utilize the various platforms, not as solely a marketer who is blasting people with marketing messages. Experience the platform as a user.
  • By being a member first, it causes your audience to feel like you are one of them. You empathize with them. From there you can craft marketing messages that are personable.
  • Facebook’s vision is to even have sponsored posts and ads appear as organic content someday by having it be personable and relative to the audience it’s reaching.
  • One tip to find relevant content to share on Facebook is to create Twitter lists on that topic of which you can then search for relevant information to share.
  • Another tip Mari has as a way to create awareness to your page and build credibility is to create a Facebook List around your niche or business category and to add your own business page to that list. This way others can subscribe to that list for information on that niche or category.
  • A great way to create awareness to your page is to leverage individual permalinks for specific posts to promote and drive traffic to those outside of Facebook. For example, in Mari’s weekly email to her database, she almost always includes at least one link to a post on her page.

About The Declining News Feed Reach For Facebook Pages

  • For seven years, businesses have had it easy with the ability to build significant audiences and reach 50%-60% of them for free.
  • Toward the end of 2013, the organic reach on Facebook Pages declined significantly.
  • The average user on Facebook could be served between 1,500 to 15,000 posts on their News Feed, thus Facebook has a news feed algorithm to filter what content gets served to users and what does not. Of these potential stories, Facebook’s algorithm serves up to 300 posts in a persons news feed when they sign into Facebook.
  • There are over 1,000 factors which go into Facebook’s News Feed algorithm.
  • Mari does not fault Facebook for moving toward having Pages pay to get visibility in the news feed. She equates it to Google. If you want to show up #1 on search, you can pay to do so. So if you want to show up in a targeted users Facebook News Feed, you should be able to pay to do so.
  • Mari believes to get good results in Facebook, it’s going to require a Facebook Ad budget.

Four Reasons Why A Business Should Keep a Facebook Page vs. Just a Facebook Profile

  1. You can’t run Facebook Ads on a Personal Facebook Page, only with Facebook Pages.
  2. The next is Search Engine Optimization as all the words in your About section are indexed by Google.
  3. Facebook Apps which provide enhanced functionality (i.e., Contest apps, iFrames, etc.) only work on Facebook Pages.
  4. Facebook Insights are only available on Facebook Pages.

About Facebook Ads

  • Facebook Ads are great if the advertiser targets users correctly, but can be obtrusive to users if done incorrectly.
  • Facebook Ads are very effective even with a small budget.
  • You need a Facebook Page to place Facebook Ads, so Mari recommends that all businesses should still maintain a Facebook Page.
  • Mari suggests putting money behind posts that have a direct business objective.
  • She also recommends using tracking pixels so you can track the effectiveness of your Facebook Ad campaigns.

Three Tips To Increase Your Organic Facebook Reach

  1. Try posting at different times of the day. It’s natural to post during business hours, but a lot of people use Facebook outside of business hours.
  2. Mix up the frequency of your posting. If you’re posting once per day, try posting two to three times per day. If you’re posting four times per day, try posting one to two times per day. See what works.
  3. Mix up the type of posts. For example, don’t always posts links. Post some photos, post some text updates, and post some links. Switch it up.

Items/People Mentioned In The Show:

Mari’s Social Media Six Pack

  • What was your favorite food as a child? Shortbread
  • What is your favorite form of exercise? Lifting weights. Especially kettle bells
  • What chore do you absolutely hate doing? Doing the dishes
  • If you could learn how to do anything in the world, what would it be?  A pianist 
  • When was the last time you were nervous? Every time she goes on stage
  • Are you a morning or a night person? Probably night, but I want to be a morning person

Enjoy the podcast? Give us a rating or a review on iTunes!

itunes